HARRISBURG — Should Pennsylvania's most serious juvenile sex offenders have to register with police, possibly for life, under a law that one state Supreme Court justice said resulted from a form of "federal blackmail?"

The state's highest court is taking up that issue after hearing arguments Tuesday about a York County judge's disputed conclusion that the juvenile registration provision of the Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act is unconstitutional.

SORNA requires juveniles ages 14 to 17 who have been adjudicated by county judges as guilty of rape, involuntary deviate sexual assault or aggravated indecent assault to register with state police for life, although they can ask to be removed from the registry after 25 years.

The state Legislature passed the law in 2011 to comply with the federal Adam Walsh Act. Had it not enacted the measure, Pennsylvania could have lost millions of dollars in federal funding.

The Supreme Court heard the SORNA dispute in its courtroom in the Capitol on an appeal the York County District Attorney's Office filed challenging Uhler's ruling.

County Deputy Prosecutor James Zamkotowicz argued that SORNA doesn't violate the civil rights of juvenile sex offenders. It doesn't constitute forbidden cruel and unusual punishment, he contended, because it isn't a punishment, but rather a "collateral consequence" of their crimes.

"They are free to live where they choose, come and go as they please, seek any form of employment they desire," Zamkotowicz said.

They must, however, keep police apprised of their whereabouts and provide other information, such as Internet user names. The registry information about their crimes is accessible to prospective employers and school officials, among others.

When Justice Max Baer asked whether SORNA impacts the juvenile offfenders' "fundamental right to reputation" under the state constitution, Zamkotowicz noted that only the most serious kinds of young sex offenders fall under the registration rule.

Only three "high-grade felony sexual offenses" trigger SORNA registration for juveniles, the prosecutor noted. By contrast, he said adults convicted of any of 59 sex crimes have to register.

Adult offenders also are evaluated by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which does not evaluate juveniles.

Zamkotowicz noted that, before SORNA's passage, the names, addresses, ages, offenses and case dispositions of juvenile sex offenders were available to the public on request from the county courts. So, he argued, SORNA had no added effect on the reputation of those lawbreakers.

"This [registration] will follow the individual his entire life," Justice Seamus P. McCaffery observed. Justice Debra McCloskey Todd called the inclusion of juvenile offenders in a federal registry as SORNA requires represents "quite an increase in [public] exposure," from the state's pre-SORNA rules.

Zamkotowicz insisted the SORNA registration mandate falls into the same category of legality as other state laws which require drunken drivers to surrender their licenses and which bar those found guilty of felonies from possessing firearms.

"Haven't we always treated juveniles differently" from adults? Justice McCaffery asked. "At 15, you aren't the same as you will be at 25."

Zamkotowicz, noting that SORNA is designed to protect the public, insisted there is a "lack of information" to support claims by the law's opponents that juvenile sex offenders are far less likely to re-offend than adults who commit sex crimes. No study on the issue covers more than a six-year span, he said.

Marsha Levick, chief counsel of the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, countered that "juvenile sex offenders are not like adult offenders" and that there is a significantly reduced probability the youths will commit new crimes. Levick called SORNA's juvenile registration requirement "wildly over-inclusive."

"It brands these juveniles as dangerous sexual offenders who are likely to recidivate," she said. "And that is contrary to the research."

"These [registrations] are for serious, serious crimes," Justice Correale F. Stevens noted. Levick replied that prosecutors always have the option to have the most serious and dangerous juvenile sex offenders tried and punished as adults.

The registration mandate "is a punishment," she insisted, given the consequences the youths will face if their criminal pasts become known in their communities due entry on the registry. "The risk of widespread release is grave," Levick said.

Justice J. Michael Eakin was the one who made the "federal blackmail" analogy. He asked if there was any way the Legislature could balance the civil rights concern and the need to enact a law compatible with the Walsh Act.

Levick said the Walsh Act has a provision that frees states from any financial or other penalty if their state supreme courts find its requirements to be unconstitutional.

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